Gaza’s Energy Authority raised on Tuesday evening alarm bells over the reluctance maintained by the General Petroleum Corporation, controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA), as regards appeals to send the fuel quantities needed to operate Gaza’s power plant with the advent of winter.

The Energy Authority expressed, in a statement, its deep anxiety over ongoing intents by the PA General Petroleum Corporation to reduce the needed fuel quantities.

The Energy Authority said it sent money to purchase 1,300 fuel cups but the corporation intends to send only 800 cups, which poses serious operational threats to the power plant.

The group called on all concerned authorities to urgently intervene and work on providing blockaded Gaza with the fuel supplies needed to operate the plant particularly with the advent of a freezing winter.

Israeli planes reportedly sprayed agricultural crops along the Gaza border, on Wednesday, with pesticides that have been killing off crops for the third day in a row, the general manager of the plant protection department at the Gaza-based Ministry of Agriculture said.

Wael Thabet said, according to Ma'an, that “several farmers informed the ministry that Israeli planes sprayed their lands with pesticides around the al-Qarrara area, in eastern Khan Younis, and the Wadi al-Salqa area ofeast central Gaza, damaging a large number of crops.”

Saleh al-Najjar, a farmer from al-Qarrara, said he lost some 30 dunams (7.4 acres) of spinach and pea crops due to the spraying, which has taken place from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. over the past three days.

Another farmer, Wael al-Shami, said he lost crops of parsley and beans which were planted near al-Qarrara in eastern Khan Younis.

Thabet added that the Red Cross made a trip to observe the damaged lands and reportedly estimated that 1500 dunams (371 acres) of land in central Gaza and 200 dunams (50 acres) of land in eastern Khan Younis were damaged according to initial reports.

Thabet demanded that the Red Cross contact Israel and call for it to stop its violations against farmers in Gaza.

Israeli settlers from the illegal Metarim industrial zone, located to the east of Dhahiriya, south of Hebron, flooded land belonging to Palestinians.

Bahjat Jabarin, Project and Proposal Manager of Environmental Quality Authority in Hebron, said the illegal settlement of Metarim includes four factories for soap, stone cutting, mineral oils and aluminum.

WAFA correspondence reported that, in the last two days, settlers intentionally discharged a huge amount of wastewater produced in these factories to farmers’ lands, which Palestinians use for agricultural purposes, said Jabarin.

He added that the settlement directorate took over dozens of acres of the land and planted solar cells in the area.

Khirbet Zanuta, which was flooded with wastewater, is rich with archaeological sites and is inhabited by 30 families living in caves and tents. The families make their living through raising animals and agriculture.

The inhabitants of this area suffer from the constant risk of displacement and prosecution by the Israeli army and settlers, in addition to restricting their access through shutting down the main road leading to the Khirba.

It is located five kilometers east of Dhahiriya, adjacent to al-Samu' town on the bypass road linking to Kiryat Arba, Ariel, Shima, and Tene settlements and the Beersheba crossing.

He said 71 illegal settlement outposts have been established by the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) across Jerusalem’s Old City.

“Today the IOA are threatening to force 15 families out of their own homes as part of the mass-deportation policies perpetrated against the Palestinian locals in favor of illegal settlement,” the activist added.

Earlier, some few days ago, the Israeli soldiers ordered four Palestinian families living in Occupied Jerusalem to vacate their homes in favor of Israeli settlement organizations that claimed ownership of the targeted buildings.

Official documents, however, have been corroborating the fact that the families had set up roots in the area before the occupation of Jerusalem.

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Thursday forced Palestinians in Um Salamouna village in southern Bethlehem to close their commercial shops.

President of the village council Mahmoud Takatkah said, in a statement, that a big number of IOF soldiers stormed the village. The Israeli troops forced the owners of commercial shops in the village to close them under weapon threat after claiming that an army patrol was exposed to stone throwing.

Takatkah pointed out that the village has been witnessing Israeli aggressive measures of repeated storming, erecting of military checkpoints, and searching of inhabitants' vehicles.